I’ve written before why I don’t like the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Manshu from OneMint.com gets a little more scientific in the breakdown of the rumored flaws in the Dow. In separate instances I was surprised, expectant, and educated. This was a great read in which Manshu breaks down some of the myths of the Dow and whether or not they’re true. In my opinion, this is the can’t miss read of the month. I loved it.
Read: Dow Jones Industrial Averages Mythbusters Edition
This is the rest of the good stuff I read this week:
Get Rich Slowly recently went on an adventure to clean out his workshop. There JD discovered remnants of hobbies that never got off the ground, nostalgic items never used bought and never used, and piles of junk. When I moved out of my apartment after college I left a lot behind in the dumpster. I wanted to get rid of my junk. As I get married this year I’m again dumping a lot of crap. Last weekend we registered for gifts for the wedding. We were told to register for xxx number of items and could only register for 1/3 of it. The thought of serving trays, useless kitchen tools, and expensive china makes me sick. Not only will we not have a lot of space, but I don’t want all that crap taking up my space. One of my fears is to someday be able to afford a large home and I’ll just fill it with a bunch of junk and have nothing to show for it. I’m glad JD shared his experience with junk, because it inspires me to avoid junk at all costs.
Tough Money Love quickly touches on the topic of diesel engines in passenger cars. Americans have often shied away from them, only because of the stigma of diesels of yore. Today, diesels get fantastic gas mileage, the kind of mileage that rivals hybrids for the same or better price. What I would really like to have is a BMW 320d from the UK, which based on my estimates, would be sold for about $38,000 nicely equipped and get 42.6 mpg. Base price of $35,000 puts it right with the new Lexus HS 250h but with better gas mileage (the Lexus expected to get 35/34 mpg) and a hell of a lot more fun to drive. It won’t happen though, so you Ukes enjoy your bimmer. I’m not hating on hybrids, they are part of the future, they just aren’t fun and not as efficient as they should be.
Saving For Serenity is, like me, planning a wedding. His budget is tighter than mine with The Sheconomist, but we do have the benefit of her parents’ financial support which I acknowledge is a luxury. What I like about this post is that he is being completely open-minded about wedding expenses. If you had a budget of $10,000 you might simply look at a $2,500 wedding planner as a waste of money, for ANY wedding. But he acknowledges that given the budget they make perfect sense. There are so many friggin details in wedding planning it’s maddening. We have a planner, but are saving quite a bit by only using them for the details of the wedding day instead of having them as the go-to point of contact for everything during the entire planning process. We are paying a fraction of $2,500, but we’re still paying for a planner. Good on this man for his honesty, we should all be so open-minded about everything from personal finance to politics.
Thicken My Wallet writes about the hail mary school of investing. This is in reference to buying stocks that have been hammered because of bad times. The two best examples today are Citigroup and GM. Both have seen their stock prices tank to next-to-nothing. Many people think they can make a quick buck. It’s possible, using UpDown I’ve ridden the Citi ride between $2-$4 quite successfully. Ultimately it’s foolish to invest in these companies thinking you will make a quick buck. You hear stories like mine above, but what you don’t hear about is I also took a 30% loss on GM stock while making (fake) money on Citi. If you believe a company has turned a corner and new management shows promise, you have a point. But 100 years of brand equity isn’t enough to warrant an investment.
Don’t forget about the Carnival of Personal Finance this week over at my good buddy’s blog, Suburban Dollar.
 By The Weakonomist |
The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice. |
